Manager Newzhttp://www.managernewz.com
Just another WordPress weblogMon, 22 Jun 2015 13:26:27 +0000en-UShourly1Want Success? Make It About the Team – Alwayshttp://www.managernewz.com/2015/06/22/want-success-make-it-about-the-team-always/
http://www.managernewz.com/2015/06/22/want-success-make-it-about-the-team-always/#commentsMon, 22 Jun 2015 13:26:27 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=540To build an empire takes more than one person. It doesn’t matter if you’re a solo entrepreneur, a solo blogger, a solo musician or artist.

To truly build an empire takes more than the soloist you may be – it takes a team.

From a solo point of view, that can mean a variety of things.

For solo entrepreneurs, it’s your partner that encourages you when no-one else will. Or the bank manager who approves your loan when you first start. Or the contractor who gives you the part-time skills for that job you couldn’t do otherwise.

For solo bloggers, it’s your readers who give you strength to keep writing when you want to give up. Or commenters that validate your thoughts. Or the social community who share your blog with new eyes.

For the musician or artist, it’s the fans who buy your work when everyone else says it’s worthless. It’s the manager or agent who never gives up on you. It’s the supplier that provides your tools of the trade to make the magic happen.

For the business owner or leader that has employees, your team is easier to define – as is the fact that, just like the soloist, your team is everything. Without them, you have nothing.

Recognize that. Nurture them. Encourage them. Give them permission to err and give them the stepping stones to the right path the next time. But most of all, make sure they feel appreciated.

We can do a lot on our own – but with our teams beside us we can conquer the world.

David’s company helps organizations engage and reward employees and keep them motivate and he’s distilled a great deal of what he’s learned in building his own business and the good, bad and ugly he’s witnessed in organizations he has worked with over the years into his principles for becoming a top 10% manager.

Questions I ask David:

What stops people from succeeding at being great leaders?

How do you properly invest in the people that are struggling within your company?

How do people find, hire and keep good leaders?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

How to become an effective leader for your employees

How to avoid insecurity in your managers

How to keep your employees engaged

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast was brought to you by VeriSign and the Make Your Idea Internet Official Contest. Register a new .COM domain name with a participating registrar during the contest entry period and enter for an opportunity to win up to $35,000! Learn more about the contest and its rules at www.verisigncontest.com

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is also brought to you by Hostgator, where you’ll get 24 hour live support via chat, phone or email, 1-click WordPress installs, easy-to-use website builder, design services, marketing services like SEO and PPC, and for my listeners: a 30% Discount. Go to www.Hostgator.com/promo/ducttape

Corporate communicators must be good writers. They must be able to hold and lead a meeting. They must have good interpersonal skills. And, they must be able to work well alone–and in a team environment.

We know about all of this because it is well documented. We talk about it a lot in professional organizations like IABC and PRSA. We read about it on blogs and industry publications.

But, we talk very little about those unwritten laws that govern our profession. Those “commandments”, if you will, that truly enable us to do our work–and do it well.

What am I talking about? I’ve come up with four unwritten “commandments” I believe play a key role for every corporate communicator.

1–Thou shall always keep executive admins happy.

One of a corporate communicator’s most important partners is the chief executive. And the CFO. And SVPs. Also known as “executive row” in many places of employment. These are your go-to spokespeople for the organization, and they are also an important source of information. So, it’s absolutely key you have unfettered (or relatively unfettered) access to these people as much as you can. Enter the administrative assistant. Developing and maintaining open and solid relationships with these people is ESSENTIAL to doing your job well. Why? Because they control the executive’s calendar. Piss them off, and you can forget getting 10 minutes today. Develop a good working relationship with them and they can become one of your most important allies in the organization. When I was working on the corporate side, these were always the first people I sought out. I made time to talk to them about personal matters. I asked them questions about their kids. I got them coffee on occasion. I looked for ways to make their lives easier. And, invariably, it always paid off.

2–Thou shall always keep a full candy dish at your desk.

Wait, what? That’s right, always be the guy/gal with the candy dish at your desk. Why would you do that? Because the candy dish is the new water cooler. Who really has water coolers anymore? That’s a dated concept. A candy dish on the other hand–that’s where you get the gossip of the organization. And, as a corporate communicator, believe me, you want to hear that gossip. You want to hear the chatter going on among employees and managers below the surface, so you know what the REAL issues are around the company. Not just the issues leadership sees. That candy dish is your ticket to those conversations. Some people might scoff at this commandment, but I truly believe in it. Another benefit: It opens up the lines of communication between you and others within the company. After all, who doesn’t love a Twix at 2 pm in the afternoon? That Twix will inevitably turn into a short 5-minute conversation about what’s going on with that employee. And again, that’s the stuff you want to hear about before it starts bubbling up.

3–Thou shall never eat alone–or at your desk.

Somewhere along the line, eating alone at your desk became a badge of honor for PR folks. And, I’m not sure why. As a corporate communicator you NEVER want to eat alone. That lunch hour is just as critical as the rest of your day. You should spend it grabbing lunch with your boss. Or, a colleague. Or an employee. Nurturing relationships. Learning about what’s going on in a different department. Talking to a colleague in product design to mine for stories for the intranet in the next month. Yep–it’s a working lunch, but it should never be spent alone. And, every once in a while, I suggest grabbing lunch with a colleague or friend OUTSIDE the office. This networking will be invaluable to your development–whether it’s lunch with a former colleague, a friend in another industry, or just someone you’ve always wanted to meet. To be clear, I’m not really saying you have to eat lunch with someone else EVERY day. But start by shooting for a couple days a week and move on from there. After all, think about the executives you support. Do you ever see them eating alone? Probably not. Why? Because they know the value of those relationships across the business. And you should, too.

4–Thou shall take at least 2 trips per year.

I know, you’re scratching your head again. What could I possibly be talking about here? Every corporate communicator should seek to get out of the office at least twice per year. Here’s my thinking. If you work for an org with offices in different locations, get out to one of those locations at least once a year. It pays to get out among employees and see the environment in which you’re communicating with employees. It pays to see the front lines. It just pays to see what it’s like in different offices. All of that will help you formulate strategies and tactics in your planning. Don’t have offices around the country? What about an industry conference? Don’t you want to get smarter about your work? Make the case to management that you need to attend at least one conference per year. And, make sure you come back with ideas and lessons you can share with your team. Lastly, take a freaking vacation! I shouldn’t even really have to say this, but vacation time is essential to healthy employees. Everyone needs a break. Yet, I remember from my time in corporate America, that far too many people were rolling vacation days over each year. Make sure you make time for yourself. Believe me, no one is too important to miss work for a week. No one.

]]>http://www.managernewz.com/2015/04/13/4-unwritten-commandments-of-the-corporate-communicator/feed/0Should You Redefine Leadership in the Workplace?http://www.managernewz.com/2015/03/16/should-you-redefine-leadership-in-the-workplace/
http://www.managernewz.com/2015/03/16/should-you-redefine-leadership-in-the-workplace/#commentsMon, 16 Mar 2015 13:05:18 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=534The one stat you need to know

The spirit of leadership is often misjudged as a gainful way of exercising control, leading to chaos. In essence, it should be recognized as a model that gives more weight to “Giving Control” over “Taking Control”.

What this episode is about and why you should care

David Marquet, a former submarine captain and author of “Turn the Ship Around!” unlocks a new angle in redefining leadership. In this podcast, he goes into retrospect and relates his journey as the newly appointed captain of nuclear-powered submarine, “USS Santa Fe”. During his active days, he sought measures to counteract all odds to fight the low self-esteem of his crew. As a captain, David fought against his instincts and explored newer ways of unifying his workforce, breaking accepted norms of leadership. For a corporate environment, the Santa Fe episode presents a stunning example of effective leadership that acts as a harbinger towards making every employee a leader.

What you will learn in this episode

“Ladder of leadership”– Re-defining decisions in an organizational framework

What is driving companies to rethink on their management model?

Why building decision making capacity in your organization is important?

How clarity helps to build a unifying workforce? How to achieve “greatness” as a mechanism?

]]>http://www.managernewz.com/2015/03/16/should-you-redefine-leadership-in-the-workplace/feed/0Why Managers MUST be Leadershttp://www.managernewz.com/2015/02/19/why-managers-must-be-leaders/
http://www.managernewz.com/2015/02/19/why-managers-must-be-leaders/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 16:02:13 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=532Anyone within an organization has the potential to become a leader, but managers MUST be leaders.In schools and in our organizations we have been taught and conditioned to believe that managers and leaders are two separate people which is quite a harmful assumption. As a result we have managers who cannot lead and leaders who cannot manage. A leader who cannot manage has a vision of where they want to go but no idea of how to get there. A manager who cannot lead is not able to build trust and create engagement within an organization to get to where they need to go. Neither of these scenarios are practical or effective.

Management and managers are human inventions that were designed with a single purpose in mind, to enforce controls and protocols. The role of a manager was to make sure that employees showed up on time, did their jobs, didn’t cause any problems, and showed up the next day to repeat the process. There was no emphasis on creativity, innovation, engagement, empowerment, or the like; nor was there a need for any of these things. However today we live and work in a very different world where all of these things are essential. This means that managers MUST be leaders. I believe we have reached an important tipping point which is forcing us to rethink managers and management altogether. I have been exploring this in a series of posts which you can find here (with much more on the way):

The stereotypical manager focuses on control, delegation, productivity, the bottom line, process, and efficiency. The leader focuses on vision, engagement, big ideas, empowerment, innovation, and transformation. One without the other is meaningless. Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs are of course considered to be great leaders in the world of business, but do you think that they didn’t know how to build a team, look at the bottom line, execute strategies, and improve productivity? Of course they did. We don’t need to look to the likes of Bezos or Jobs, any manager regardless of how junior or senior needs to be able to come up with big ideas, inspire employees, take on a certain degree of risk, or engage team members. We spend a lot of time taking people in positions of power and trying to train them to be leaders when we should be finding the leaders inside of our organizations and training them to be managers. The only thing worse than working for a manager that can’t lead is missing out on the opportunity to turn our existing leaders into managers. We need to stop assuming that “managers” is a dirty word, if managers must be leaders then they should be looked at with a positive lens.

Greg Schott, the CEO of Mulesoft is a MANGER that personally interviews every candidate that applies to work there.

Todd Etter, the chief collaboration officer of The Motley Fool is a MANGER who uses games to inspire and engage his employees.

Lynanne Kunkel, the VP of Global Talent Development at Whirlpool is a MANGER that recently helped introduce a program across the company that instills the values of leadership and innovation across all employees.

Bob Chapman, the CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Companies, is a MANAGER who measures “heart count” at his company to look at how engaged and happy the employees are.

Scott Abel, the CEO of Spiceworks, is a MANGER who has something called “slices with Scott” where he orders pizzas for the whole company who then gets to spend hours asking Scott any question they want whether it be “what’s our company strategy going forward” to “how come you don’t have kids.”

We can no longer afford to segment and separate managers and leaders, this does nothing but hurt our organizations. If you want to formally be placed in a position of “power” where you help drive your organization forward then the pre-requisite for this is that you must be a leader. That is, you have earned followers, you have built trust among your co-workers, and you are able to think big and inspire others. But if you are not a leader at your organization than you should also not be a manager.

Management and leadership need to be taught in schools as interconnected disciplines that cannot exist without the other. Leaders within organizations should be mentored so that they know how to properly manage. We must stop referring to leaders and managers as two separate people. And perhaps most importantly, we need to give leaders at our organizations the opportunity to be officially recognized as managers. Only then will we be able to create organizations where employees are engaged, organizations that are able to attract and retain top talent, and organizations that are capable of surviving and thriving in a rapidly changing world.

Wouldn’t you want to work for an organization where all the managers are leaders? Wouldn’t you want to be that kind of a manager?

There’s a constant debate around whether we need more managers or more leaders. Sadly this is a fruitless debate that artificially pits the two against each other. When thinking about the future of work managers MUST be leaders. That is, they are placed in a position of power because they have earned followers, thought leadership, and respect. If a manager is simply placed in a position of power because they are able to bring in the most money or are experts at delegating then they will fail. It’s time we stop referring to managers and leaders as two separate people. If you haven’t earned leadership then you shouldn’t be a manager.

Managers must understand the trends shaping the future of work

These five trends were explored in a previous article called, The Five Trends Shaping the Future of Work but to recap them here they are: mobility, globalization, new behaviors, millennials (demographics), and technology. Managers must successfully understand what these five trends are and how they are going to impact their respective organizations. These trends are the basic building blocks (the DNA) of the future of work.

Managers must embrace vulnerability

We can no longer have managers in the workplace that resemble robots. It’s bad enough that there is quite a bit of concern around actual robots taking jobs away from humans, the last thing we need are humans that act like robots. It makes me think of the saying, “I’m not a doctor but I play one on t.v.” – applied to managers this would be “I’m not a robot but I play one in the workplace.” Brene Brown said it best when she quipped that there is no innovation without vulnerability. This is because people want to build relationships with other…people. This requires trust and a human connection. When managers put up a wall of being stoic, all-knowing, emotionless beings, they kill off any hope of innovation, trust, and connection. Managers embracing vulnerability in the workplace isn’t important because it’s a nice thing to do but because it’s crucial for effective communication, collaboration, and innovation.

Managers must challenge convention

Why is it that we constantly hear about managers that are “putting out fires?” Managers must be the fire-starters! That is, they must be constantly thinking of ways that they can challenge the assumptions that we have around how work gets done. Should managers make all the decisions? Do we need annual employee reviews? Can anyone in the company be a leader? Should innovation be a core skill taught to all employees? Can the organization set up a pool of experimental capital that can be used to test out new ideas? These are the types of questions and ideas that managers should be thinking about. Today, their stereotypical role focuses on constraint, control, order, diligence, and sticking with the common assumptions that have long guided how we work. Instead, managers must heed the word of the band Prodigy to become “fire-starters.”

Managers of the future are very different than managers of the past, they must evolve.

]]>http://www.managernewz.com/2015/01/19/evolution-of-the-manager/feed/010 Principles of the Future Managerhttp://www.managernewz.com/2014/12/15/10-principles-of-the-future-manager/
http://www.managernewz.com/2014/12/15/10-principles-of-the-future-manager/#commentsMon, 15 Dec 2014 15:25:32 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=528Following up on my post around the 7 Principles of The Future Employee, I wanted to share another concept which is the 10 Principles of The Future Manager. When it comes to the future of work it’s not just employees that are changing, managers are also having to change the ways in which they lead and in fact are HAVING to become leaders. These are 10 core principles or characteristics that managers will and must possess going forward. This image is taken from my book, The Future of Work.

Is a leader
There has long been a distinction between managers and leaders. Managers were the dictators and leaders were the visionaries. Going forward a manager MUST be a leader, that is, he or she must earn followers and not command respect. Being a manager is something you earn not something you are assigned to do. A manager cannot be someone placed in a position of power simply because they bring in the most money or are the best at delegating.

Follow from the front
This concept is all about the manager’s responsibility to remove obstacles from the paths of employees. A manager exists to make his people more successful not to have his or her people serve them. When a manager follows from the front he paves the way and enables team members to become successful.

Understands technology
Managers don’t need to become experts at every new technology that comes their way. However, now that technology has become such a crucial part of how we live and work it has never been more important for managers to grasp which technologies have the potential to benefit the organization and which new technologies might be coming their way in the near future. A manager must a keep a good pulse on technology.

Leads by example
A manager must be the first person to demonstrate a new behavior, to support a relevant technology, or to embrace a new concept. A manager cannot lead by delegating and ordering, a manager can only lead by demonstrating; they are the guinea pigs, the ones on the front line, and the ones who will help drive change.

Embraces vulnerability
A manager need to be ok with asking for help, admitting when they are wrong or when they don’t know something, and will feel comfortable when team members ask questions and voice their opinions even though they may contradict theirs. Embracing vulnerability is what leads to innovation, it’s about bringing down the stereotypical façade that managers are supposed to have (being robots) and being people. We are already talking about robots replacing many human jobs, let’s not jump the gun by having managers act like “human” robots. Managers must be people.

Believes in sharing and collective intelligence
A manager understands and embraces the fact that they may not have all the answers or make the best decisions nor should they want or be expected to. A manager knows that it is far more effective to rely on the collective intelligence of a team instead of the directions of one. This manager also acknowledges the benefit and value in sharing information instead of hoarding it; something that is largely being made possible with collaborative technologies.

Is a fire starter
Managers are oftentimes credited with having to “put out fires,” but their role should be the exact opposite! Managers SHOULD be fire starters; that is sparking ideas, challenging convention, and experimenting.

Gives real time recognition and feed-back
Any manager worth their weight in salt knows that annual reviews are not effective for either the organization or the team members. Instead managers will focus on providing their team with real time feedback and recognition through collaborative technologies and platforms and through regular, short, periodic check-ins instead of multi-hour long reviews.

Is conscientious of personal boundaries

A manager recognizes that team members have their own space, both digitally and physically. This means respecting those boundaries and being aware of when it is appropriate to “friend” someone through social channels, if/when it’s ok to schedule a 6am meeting or a 10 pm presentation, or if it’s ok to send emails or projects through on the weekends or during vacation time. With our ability to always stay connected managers must remember that connectivity doesn’t always imply availability. A manager must work towards setting expectations that boundaries exist and are respected.

Adapts to the future employee

Managers understand that the way we work and think about work is changing. This means they are open minded and accept change, in fact they encourage it and help drive it. Managers pay attention to the 7 Principles of The Future Employee and they make changes to accommodate. Managers who stay in an “old way of thinking” will unfortunately be replaced as nobody will want to work for them.

These are The 10 Principles of The Future Manager and you can learn more about them and plenty of other concepts around how the workplace is changing by reading my new book, The Future of Work.

]]>http://www.managernewz.com/2014/12/15/10-principles-of-the-future-manager/feed/0The Alliance – Managing Talent In a Networked Worldhttp://www.managernewz.com/2014/11/17/the-alliance-managing-talent-in-a-networked-world/
http://www.managernewz.com/2014/11/17/the-alliance-managing-talent-in-a-networked-world/#commentsMon, 17 Nov 2014 14:42:46 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=526In a world where employee tenure is shrinking and where independent workers are on the rise, organizations are struggling to find a new way of working with employees. Employees in the meantime are thinking of ways they can develop their careers while always keeping an eye on “the next best opportunity” to come their way. Clearly there is a challenge for businesses today when it comes to trust in loyalty. So, is there a solution that can benefit both parties? One approach is to use the concepts outlined in a recent book called The Alliance which focuses on “tours of duty” or rotational periods of employment. During a tour of duty an employee commits to completing something for the employer and the employer commits to helping the employee advance their career, learn new skills, grow their network, etc. To learn more about the “tour of duty” along with other concepts from The Alliance, I invited Chris Yeh to join me on The Future of Work Podcast.

]]>http://www.managernewz.com/2014/11/17/the-alliance-managing-talent-in-a-networked-world/feed/0Trust and the Future of Workhttp://www.managernewz.com/2014/10/13/trust-and-the-future-of-work/
http://www.managernewz.com/2014/10/13/trust-and-the-future-of-work/#commentsMon, 13 Oct 2014 13:52:08 +0000http://www.managernewz.com/?p=524The one stat you need to know

“Nearly 1 in 4 workers say they don’t trust their employer and only about half believe their employer is open and upfront with them.”

What this episode is about and why you should care

When we think about the future of work “Trust” falls flat and center as a topic that must be addressed, especially since it seems as though trust today seems to be at an all time low. We used to do business with a handshake and today we use massive legal document-based transactions which shows how companies and individuals have less trust between one another. We need trust among employees and among managers. Without trust we can innovate, collaborate, share, communicate, or work. So what has happened to trust over the past few years? How did we get to where we are today? What does the future of trust look like? And what do organizations need to be thinking about to help build trust among their employees and managers? Here to talk about trust is Charles Green who spent most of his career focusing on trust and trust-based businesses. He is one of the smartest guys I know and provides a fascinating and non-conventional perspective on what trust is and how to create it.

What you will learn in this episode

Reasons why modern businesses have trust issues

How the simple handshake agreement would pan out in the future

How technology simplifies trust with a click of a button

The problem of the distinction between lack of trustworthiness and lack of willingness to trust

Distinction between trust towards people and trust towards institutions

The decrease of trust and loyalty within organizations or businesses and its advantages

Solutions for the decreasing loyalty of employees and retention of employees

How the idea of “job-hopping” and trust relates with each other

The importance of motives of millennials who are “job-hopping” and how “job-hopping” is not a bad thing

How to build trust as an employee towards managers and peers

The trust equation and how it works

How to build trust as a manager towards employees

The relevance of collaboration platforms with building up trust

The advantages of sharing ideas and how it builds trust among people

Ways to cut through long contracts and makes things much simpler and easier

Advantages of being trusting in a business relationship and taking a personal risk

The reciprocity of trust and how it works

Charlie’s personal advice on people who had their trust tainted by other people’s betrayal

How getting personal builds trust and its importance

Charlie’s personal advice for people who are starting out in building trust